As the title says, I need a PT this week - but my head is empty and I can't think of a topic to write 500 words on. Therefore, I have created this in the VHL.com section, so naturally I will end up well over the word count as @N0HBDY used to roast me for. Anyways let's get to it!
Obviously anyone who reads the forums would have noticed a couple points of drama this week, but the more relevant one to me was @jRuutu's article discussing the Helsinki Titans management group of @Rayzor_7 and @Mr_Hatter. I'm just tagging folks so I don't get yelled at down the line . Overall it was an interesting piece, very openly blunt about what Helsinki has experienced over the course of the season so far, albeit without much tact or decorum. I always enjoy Ruutu's pieces because of the sort of controversial factor, or the fact that he is the voice of some more extreme opinions that people think, but don't necessarily say because they don't fully agree. His pieces about the meta and Vancouver were good examples of those. Overall though, I would like to touch on points made in his piece because I want to.
One big reason I even was willing to trade myself to Helsinki was because of the masterclass performance of Rayz to rebuild the organization and stockpile a ridiculous amount of draft picks and prospects after the Jubo era. People complain about his activity on the forums or in the main server, but it's difficult to say that he hasn't excelled at the roster management component of being a GM. The moves made last offseason shot Helsinki into a contending position to surround Xavier Booberry with quality talent.
I think Hatter mentioned that he hadn't been looking at the results much, but he has never really been an AGM who is very involved in results or roster management - moreso an advisor and LR presence, especially in the M. Rayz however has at the least, commented on sims relatively frequently so this isn't really accurate at all.
Admittedly, this was something that frustrated me as well, because we had a lot of bots playing minutes. However, one big reason for this was because we didn't have a second center on the roster, or another player with FO, so Ori was getting double shifted across the PP/PK which obviously capped him out. We resolved it by agreeing to add FO to Nico, effectively making him 2C. Lines were changed after that. However we still had bots playing significant minutes on the PP due to double shifting across lines, and it did take some time to get that changed, I think until the 10th or 11th sim. Not ideal, but at least the changes happened with plenty of time left in the season. We had the most recent conversation on 4/30 about it and the change was made on 5/1, so it did happen relatively quickly, but after what felt like 3-4 sims without the changes being asked for.
Regarding backup games, we had a pretty open discussion in the LR whether playing the bot = guaranteed loss, and how to sort of coordinate that. We didn't really feel like there were any optimal backup goalie games outside like LA, but there was a bit of an agreement that we shouldn't have backup games against teams in our division. Unfortunately we seemed to have had one against Warsaw who was ahead of us in the standings that we lost, which seems to be what led to Ruutu's anger. I get it though, and Hatter acknowledged it, guess everyone will be aware of it in the future now. Sometimes those kinds of "boots in the ass" are necessary to really learn the lesson.
Obviously a big concern, especially since my desire is to play for a contending team. If we can't re-sign the big players or if we don't replace them if some walk into FA, then it's a tough position for me to be in. We'll just have to wait and see I suppose, but Rayz is aware of the need for urgency and I trust he'll do what needs to be done.
Lol, I don't give a flying fuck about press conferences. We have enough other secondary tasks to do, and you can write pressers yourself. Also the questions are not shit, just not to everyone's liking apparently. Do some other team's presser in this case, you think the media asks players what they want to be asked either? This is the one main portion that I laugh at and think it was wholly unnecessary to make a big deal about.
Honestly, I don't even know. GM's have only been replaced recently if they go IA, otherwise they just step down when they burn out. Sometimes they have already let the team go to ruins by that point, but I can't recall any VHL GM getting outright fired. Even egregious rules violations recently have just gotten a slap on the wrist, so we'll see.
I think there is competition but not a plethora of qualified candidates as there used to be before the E's implementation. We also risk losing qualified GM's in the E/M if everyone with a brain and enough free time to waste on Discord is in the VHL. Recruitment, do your thing.
Shit, that's pretty late man. We shall see!
Overall, I see the frustrations and understand some components of it. Other portions, I think are ridiculous to complain about, like the pressers. We're obviously not performing to expectations, and that comes across the board. Booberry has put up some horrendous performances, the skaters scored like 1 goal per game for like 6-7 games in a row. Like we're not happy about that, we want to be in a playoff spot and challenging the leaders of the EU. I'm not here to waste my time or effort, and neither should anyone else. I don't support removing Rayz from his role, as long as he continues to do his job to the team's collective appreciation. I don't foresee that changing unless there's gross mismanagement, which we will likely deal with internally first
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Prick.
